Mr Cottrell also said that the more homework a teacher gave, the more teaching time was lost 'correcting' it.

He said effective teaching in the classroom, which differentiated both children's learning styles and learning abilities, far outweighed any value of homework.

There are no official guidelines for schools about homework, although they are recommended to have a policy on the matter.

But the Department of Education website does provide advice for parents on the matter and states that "homework is an important part of learning and it is important to encourage your child to do his or her homework each evening".

Among the other issues raised with the committee was the need to increase the amount of time given to the teaching of maths at primary level, up from the current three hours a week.

Irish National Teachers' Organisation (INTO) general secretary Sheila Nunan said our primary schools had one of the lowest allocations of teaching time for maths, at about two-thirds the European average.

She also called for a "substantial change" in the way that teachers were trained to teach maths and said it was time to extend teacher training to four years from three.

The INTO also criticised the lack of investment in school computing and the lack of a nationwide supply of reliable broadband connectivity.

Ms Nunan said, to date, €22m had been given to primary schools to facilitate the purchase of minimum computer hardware, which was less than half of what was required.